May 22, 1972
On this day in Horror History, Maximilian Michael Brooks was born.
Author of The New York Times Bestselling novel ‘The Zombie Survival
Guide’ and ‘World War Z’, Brooks has furthered zombie related literature
to unimaginable popularity in the last decade. An inspiration too many
of demographics, the survival aspect of Brooks’ first novel would
challenge in a comedic vein, for everyone to
take the impending zombie outbreak with a little more severity. Also
inspiring an upcoming blockbuster from Plan B Entertainment, World War Z
is set to hit theatres June 21st. The son of legendary actor and
film-maker Mel Brooks, Max will forever be a testament to the
reinvigoration of zombies in popular culture.
“The only rule
that ever made sense to me I learned from a history, not an economics,
professor at Wharton. "Fear," he used to say, "fear is the most valuable
commodity in the universe." That blew me away. "Turn on the TV," he'd
say. "What are you seeing? People selling their products? No. People
selling the fear of you having to live without their products." Fuckin'
A, was he right. Fear of aging, fear of loneliness, fear of poverty,
fear of failure. Fear is the most basic emotion we have. Fear is primal.
Fear sells.”-Max Brooks
May 6, 1915
On this day in Horror History, Orson Welles was born. One of the most
celebrated talents in the entertainment industry, Welles saw a fair
share of awards, controversy, and worldwide infamy in his lifetime.
Early in his career while directing the Mercury Theatre Broadcast of
"War of the Worlds", based on H.G. Wells' novel, he would terrify
millions who believed that the events in the 1938
Radio dramatization were in fact the reporting of an invasion from
mars. Publicly apologizing after the mass hysteria that resulted from
his fluidity and directorial realism, the world would be in awe for the
next half a century watching Welles career give film some of the most
beloved movies of all time. Having lent his brilliance to such classics
as Citizen Kane (1941) and Othello (1952), Welles was a soul that would
bless the world with an ideology and beauty that will forever be missed.
"For thirty years people have been asking me how I reconcile X
with Y! The truthful answer is that I don't. Everything about me is a
contradiction and so is everything about everybody else. We are made out
of oppositions; we live between two poles. There is a philistine and an
aesthete in all of us, and a murderer and a saint. You don't reconcile
the poles. You just recognize them.” –Orson Welles
March 15, 1937
On this day in Horror
History, Howard Phillips Lovecraft passed away. More commonly known by
his pen name H.P. Lovecraft, the works of the literary genius have
inspired and intertwined with hundreds of films in the last decade,
and thousands of popular culture mediums have paid homage to the
brilliance in the macabre that was seemingly fluid to the American
Author. Everything from film to music, video games to artists worldwide
have been impacted by the tales of Cthulhu and mythology behind the
ageless sagas which has become home for horror and science fiction
aficionados since Lovecraft’s passing unto today. A life cut short by
cancer, it was the perilous disease that would attack Lovecraft’s small
intestine and take the author from the awestruck world. Lost but never
forgotten, he will always be the irrefutable father of horror, and the
mind at which a legacy was born.
“From even the greatest of horrors, irony is seldom absent.”- H.P Lovecraft
Part 2:
March 15, 1943
On this day in Horror
History, David Cronenberg was born. The mind behind such films as They
Came from Within (1975), Rabid (1977), Scanners (1981), Videodrome
(1983), and The Fly (1986), Cronenberg has become a staple of the
horror industry. Given such suitable nicknames as “King of Venereal
Horror” and the “Baron of Blood”, Cronenberg has established a following
with his eclectic inspirations within film, from the gore and mutant
nature to crime and psychological thrillers which have gained fan bases
in other genres. A living legend, even with countless cult masterpieces
under his belt the Canadian born film-maker will certainly go on to awe
us for years to come.
“Civilization is repression. You don't
get civilization without repression of the unconscious, of the id. And
the basic appeal of art is to the unconscious. Therefore, art is
somewhat subversive of civilization. And yet at the same time it seems
necessary for civilization. You don't get civilization without art.”-
David Cronenberg
